Fantasy sport talent scout system and method therefore

ABSTRACT

Methods for a computer implemented fantasy sports game are described. A computer-implement fantasy sports game method provides data from a plurality of information sources related to one or more fantasy sports players. The data is weighted based on predetermined logic rules to produce a value associated therewith. The values are aggregated to provide a ranking of the one or more fantasy sports players. The ranked players are compared to players on a participant&#39;s roster and recommendations are made to the participant.

BACKGROUND

Fantasy sports and fantasy sports leagues are well known and becomingincreasingly popular. Certain of these fantasy leagues are provided byfantasy sports applications hosted by servers, such as the servers inthe World Wide Web that allow users to participate on-line. Generally, afantasy sport or league is a simulation game where participants selectactive real-life players in various positions to form fantasy teams. Afantasy sports league consists of a plurality of fantasy sports teamsand consequently a number of these participants. Each fantasy team inthe fantasy league usually competes against all the other teams in thefantasy league (head to head style) in scheduled matchups or accumulatesstatistics in chosen categories throughout the season (rotisserie styleor ranked style). Success of a particular fantasy team in the fantasyleague is determined by the cumulative number of points obtained by eachof the fantasy players corresponding to the performance of the real-lifeplayers during the real-life athletic competitions. The fantasy teamwith the best won-lost record compiled during a fantasy season by theparticipant's fantasy team determines the winner.

Typically, the performance of a fantasy player is based on thestatistics the real-life athlete obtained during the course of theathlete's real-life athletic competition, as determined at the end ofthe athletic competition. For example, in a football fantasy league, acertain number of points may be assigned to a particular accomplishmentof a real-life player such as touchdowns, rushing yards, receivingyards, passing yards, etc. When selecting or drafting a particularfantasy player for a fantasy team for a scheduled competition, thefantasy sport participant may be limited to past performance informationof the real-life player embodied in player statistics. In other words,these statistics only provide information about the real-life player'sperformance which has already occurred.

A fantasy sport participant may seek out additional information aboutparticular fantasy players from alternative sources such as, forexample, fantasy sports writers, real-life sports writers, fantasysports experts, real-life sports writers, percentages illustrating howoften players are selected by other fantasy teams in other fantasyleagues for a given competition, etc. However, the fantasy sportparticipant must process this information on a case by case basis todetermine which fantasy player will be part of the participant's line-upfor an upcoming game or competition. In addition, certain sources ofinformation may be more important to a particular participant or aparticular league as compared with other sources of information. Forexample, certain participants may be more influenced by information fromfantasy sports experts as compared to real-life sports experts since thefocus of a fantasy sports expert is to provide information that willhelp a fantasy sports participant select players that will produce themost number of points for the participant. This may be in contrast to areal-life sports expert that may only provide information about thechances of a particular team winning against an opponent rather than theperformance of individual players and the accumulation of fantasy sportspoints.

Moreover, certain fantasy experts may provide fantasy playerrecommendations based on a standard fantasy league point allocationrather than a point allocation associated with a particular league. Forexample, in fantasy football a passing touchdown by a real-life playermay be worth six (6) points to a fantasy football participant. However,certain leagues allocate only four (4) points for a passing touchdown. Arecommendation by a fantasy expert for particular fantasy players may bemore applicable to a fantasy league using a standard point allocationrather than for a fantasy league that has customized its pointallocation. Similarly, percentages illustrating how often players areselected by other fantasy teams in other fantasy leagues may not beweighted as highly when recommending the selection of fantasy players ifthe assigned point allocation is different between leagues. It is withrespect to these and other considerations that the present improvementshave been needed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of a fantasy sports system inaccordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 2 illustrates assistant GM information in accordance with anembodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 3 illustrates an embodiment of talent scout module in accordancewith an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 4 illustrates an embodiment of talent scout sourcing module inaccordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 5 illustrates an embodiment of talent scout weighting module inaccordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 6 illustrates an embodiment of talent scout recommendation modulein accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIGS. 7, 8A AND 8B illustrates an embodiment of a logic flow for afantasy sports system in accordance with an embodiment of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 9 illustrates an embodiment of a computing architecture.

FIG. 10 illustrates an embodiment of a communications architecture.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Various embodiments are generally directed to fantasy sports systems andmethods of playing that provide participants with player recommendationsbased on various sources of information and participant input. Someembodiments are directed to customizing the applicability and/orweighting of certain of the various sources of information to obtainrecommendations based on a particular fantasy sports league. Acomputer-implemented fantasy sports game method comprises providing datafrom a plurality of information sources related to one or more fantasysports players. The data from the plurality of information sources isweighted as defined by a participant or user for a particular fantasyleague. The weighted information is aggregated to provide a playerranking. This ranking is compared with a participant's player roster todetermine if a player recommendation should be provided to theparticipant and what that recommendation is.

Generally and for purposes of this disclosure, fantasy sports leaguesmay be associated with real-life sports, professional and/or amateur(e.g. college football), having multiple games in an individual season.Typical sports include, for example, football, baseball, basketball,soccer, hockey, golf, tennis, etc. The operation and function of afantasy sports league is generally known and typically comprises atleast two fantasy teams formed of fantasy players selected or drafted tocomprise a fantasy team roster. Each of the fantasy players represent areal-life athlete that participates in a professional or amateurreal-life sport. The real-life statistics of each player on each fantasyteam are compiled after each real-life game. The statistics correlate toa particular number of fantasy points as mentioned above.

FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of a fantasy sports system 10comprising a plurality of fantasy sports participants 15 ₁ . . . 15_(N), a network communication system 20 that allows each of theplurality of fantasy sports participants 15 . . . 15 _(N) to communicatewith fantasy sports system server(s) 30. Each of the fantasy sportsparticipants may access the system server(s) utilizing fantasyparticipant devices having the exemplary computer architecture asdescribed with reference to FIG. 6. The network communication system 20may be broadly interpreted as a network of any type or aninterconnection of a plurality of networks providing bi-directionalcommunication between each of the participants and the fantasy sportssystem server(s) 30.

As would be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art, fantasysports system server(s) 30 provides access to fantasy game informationand facilitates fantasy game play by each of the plurality of fantasysports participants 15 ₁ . . . 15 _(N). For example, fantasy sportssystem server(s) 30 may store fantasy player information module 40 forone or more fantasy teams in one or more fantasy leagues including, forexample, fantasy player statistics, text data, images, audio, video,etc. The information stored in fantasy player information is provided toassist fantasy sports participants in selecting particular real-lifeplayers as fantasy sports players on a roster or line-up. Thisinformation is managed by the fantasy sports system server(s) 30 andaccessed by participants in order to facilitate game play using fantasygame module 45. As used herein, “statistics” includes any identifiable,measurable, monitored or recorded action by a real-life player in theplayer's real-life sport. Each real-life sport includes commonly usedstatistics which translate into points associated with the fantasysports league. Statistics are calculated, input, or provided by one ormore databases either manually or preferably automatically and/orelectronically, i.e., by computer or similar processing device andstored in fantasy player information module 40. Electronically includes,but is not limited to computer, Internet, or other suitable electronicprocessing. Automatic updating can occur at set time intervals which maydepend on the type of fantasy sport (e.g. football may be updated onceper week), customized when a fantasy league is organized or upon requestby a fantasy sports participant. In addition, the statistics may beprovided independently by a separate system or integrated with system10. In further variations, the statistics are received in real-timeand/or the player updates are generated automatically or upon request.

Included as part of the fantasy sports system server(s) 30 is a fantasygame module 45 and an assistant general manager module 55. Fantasy gamemodule 45 facilitates game play for the fantasy sports participants 15 ₁. . . 15 _(N). Assistant GM module 55 accesses fantasy playerinformation from fantasy player information module 40 based on requestsfrom the fantasy sports participants 15 ₁ . . . 15 _(N) in order toallow each participant to generate, modify, and recommend fantasyplayers as well as providing the ability to manage a participant'sfantasy sports team for a given competition. In particular, theassistant GM module 55 provides a participant access to informationabout one or more players. For example, once a participant accesses theassistant GM module, information such as the player's name, upcomingopponent, and access to a talent scout module is provided. Changes infantasy team line-ups may occur during a fantasy season, such as byreplacement of players for non-performance, injury, or other reasons,including trade of roster players between fantasy team owners.Additionally, players may be reserved, benched, activated or started, asspecific league rules permit.

The assistant GM module 55 and fantasy player information 40 as well asother components and data may be communicatively coupled via varioustypes of communications media and may coordinate operations between eachother within the fantasy sports system server(s) 30 and fantasy gamemodule 45. The coordination may involve the uni-directional orbi-directional exchange of information. For instance, the fantasy gamemodule 45 may control the fantasy sports server(s) 30 to managecommunication in the form of signals communicated over communicationsmedia between each of the components and/or functions therein as well aswith the fantasy sports participants 15 ₁ . . . 15 _(N) via networkcommunication system 20.

A new and unique operational aspect of a fantasy sports league system 10in accordance with the present disclosure, as provided by the fantasysports system server(s) 30, is directed to utilization of the assistantGM module 55 to provide fantasy sports participants 15 ₁ . . . 15 _(N)with automated assistance in making fantasy team line-up decisionseasily and quickly. This is accomplished by incorporating varioussources of fantasy sports and fantasy player related information as wellas the customized weighting of such player information based onparticular fantasy league parameters to provide fantasy player line-uprecommendations to fantasy sports participants. In particular, withinthe fantasy sports system server(s) 30, the assistant GM module 55identifies the player name 60, upcoming opponent information 70, gametime and day 80 and allows access to the talent scout module 90 as shownin FIG. 2. The talent scout module 90 provides the participants 15 ₁ . .. 15 _(N) with a combination of certain information from fantasy playerinformation 50 as well as information from other sources customizable bya fantasy sports participant which is analyzed to providerecommendations regarding line-ups, trades, free agent acquisitions,etc. as described in more detail herein. It is the selection, weightingand aggregation of information and data from various sources which isanalyzed based on predetermined logic rules associated with a particularfantasy sports league that provides recommendations to the fantasysports participants regarding player line-up selections, changes,additions, etc.

FIG. 3 generally illustrates modules that may comprise talent scout 90.In particular, talent scout module 90 includes a talent scout sourcingmodule 100 which selects player information from one or more of aplurality of sources. The talent scout module 100 provides the selectedsources of information to talent scout weighting module 200 whichdetermines the weighting for each of the one or more selected sources ofinformation. The weighting of each of the selected sources ofinformation is customizable by a fantasy sports participant 15 ₁ . . .15 _(N) as described in more detail below. The talent scout weightingmodule 200 also aggregates the weighted information and outputsinformation to talent scout ranking module 300 which ranks the playersbyposition. This information is provided to the assistant GM module shownin FIG. 6 which compares the player rankings with a player rosterassociated with a fantasy sports participant 15 ₁ . . . 15 _(N). Oncecompared, a player recommendation is provided to the participant whichmay indicate that a participant should trade, add or otherwise modify aparticipant's roster for a given fantasy competition.

FIG. 4 illustrates talent scout sourcing module 100 which generallyfunctions to select one or more of a plurality of sources of information101 ₁ . . . 101 _(N) applicable for a particular fantasy sports league.Information sources 101 ₁ . . . 101 _(N) may comprise information fromfantasy sports experts and/or writers which provide playerrecommendations via fantasy sports blogs, Internet postings,newsletters, or other forms of information dissemination. Informationsources 101 ₁ . . . 101 _(N) may also represent information fromreal-life sports experts and/or writers which provide information aboutreal-life sports teams and players.

The sources of information that are selected to be analyzed may beset-up as a default for a particular fantasy sports league within system10 or may be customizable by a fantasy sports participant 15 ₁ . . . 15_(N). In particular, talent scout sourcing module 100 includes asourcing information module 102 which receives the plurality of sourcesof information 101 ₁ . . . 101 _(N), and based on one or more sets ofuser source selection 103, selects particular ones 110 ₁ . . . 110 _(N)of the plurality of sources. Selection of the information sources by aparticipant may be based on participant preferences regarding the sourceof the information. For example, a participant may believe that acertain fantasy sport expert has more credibility than other fantasysport experts. In addition, a participant may prefer a source of fantasysport information over other information sources based on pastperformance history and experience with a particular writer, blogger,expert, etc.

The sourcing information 101 ₁ . . . 101 _(N) may be provided tosourcing information module 102 in a push or pull format depending onthe particular source of information. In other words, information may bepushed to module 102 based on the source of that information or may bepulled by module 102 from particular sources based on requestsimplemented by a particular fantasy league. For example, informationfrom a particular fantasy sports expert may be pulled at regularintervals and supplied to sourcing information module 102. In anotherembodiment, particular fantasy sports writers may push their particularsourcing information to module 102 which extracts pertinent statistics,selections and other information for fantasy sports players contained inthe articles written by such fantasy sports writers. The presentdisclosure does not impose restrictions on the information from varioussources other than that the information be related to a particularfantasy sports league and fantasy sports players within the fantasysports league. Those having ordinary skill in the art will appreciatethat the sourcing information content may be structured data, such as,for example, Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), Extensible MarkupLanguage (XML), or a subset of a general format such as RSS (Rich SiteSummary or Really Simple Syndication), a hybrid or extension of somesuch standard, or the like. Feed formatted content may be accessedthrough a feed, stored in a local file, or the like of fantasy sportssystem server(s) 30. The sourcing information and data may correspond tothe formatted content of a webpage, or other formatted text and/or data.

Additionally, sourcing information may also relate to valuesrepresenting how often particular players are selected for startingline-ups by other fantasy teams in other fantasy leagues. A separatemodule may be provided in fantasy sports system server(s) 30 and/orcommunicated to server(s) 30 which extract line-up information fromother fantasy leagues supported by server(s) 30 and supply such data asadditional sourcing information 101 _(N) to sourcing information module102 which may or may not be selected by a participant 15 ₁ . . . 15 _(N)based on the one or more sets of user source selection 103.

FIG. 5 illustrates the talent scout weighting module 200 and theoperation of applying user defined source weighting to the varioussources of selected player information 110 ₁ . . . 110 _(N) and theaggregation thereof to provide player rankings by aggregation module215. The sourcing information 110 ₁ . . . 110 _(N) is supplied to asource weighting module 210 which weighs the source of information basedon a participant's preferences. In particular, source weighting module210 includes user defined source weighting sub-modules 210 ₁ . . . 210_(N) which correspond to each source of information 110 ₁ . . . 110 _(N)respectively and provides a weighting to the player informationcontained in each source. For example, if sourcing information 110 ₁ isassociated with information from a fantasy sports expert, user definedsource weighting sub-module 210 ₁ may associate this information with afirst particular weighting W. Sourcing information 110 ₂ may beassociated with opinions from a fantasy sports blog and user definedsource weighting sub-module 210 ₂ may allocate this information with asecond particular weighting W₂ where W₁>W₂. In this manner, aparticipant is weighing the source of information 110 ₁ more than thesource of information 110 ₂ since this source of information is from anexpert that the participant believes is better or more accurate than thesource of information 110 ₂. Furthermore, sourcing information 110 ₃ mayrepresent extracted information from a real-life expert of the real-lifesport associated with a real-life player that corresponds to the fantasysports player and user defined source weighting sub-module 210 ₃ mayassign weighting W₃ to this information where W₂>W₃. This processcontinues such that each piece of sourcing information 110 _(N) has anassociated weight W_(N). In this manner, a participant can customize theweighting of each source of information using the source weightingsub-modules 210 ₁ . . . 210 _(N) by position and/or source. Thisselection and weighting process provides each participant with theability to decide if a particular source of information is reliable bygiving it a higher weighting than other sources of information.

In operation, each weighted source of information output fromsub-modules 210 ₁ . . . 210 _(N) of module 210 is supplied toaggregation module 215 which aggregates each weighted source ofinformation to provide a value to each player to obtain a ranking of allthe players in a particular position. For example, aggregation module215 may rank each quarterback from the weighted sources of informationfrom each source weighting sub-module 210 ₁ . . . 210 _(N) to arrive ata value for each quarterback in the league. These values are then rankedto place each quarterback in the fantasy sports league in order asdescribed in more detail with reference to FIG. 6. This order may befrom highest value to lowest value or lowest value to highest value andthese values may be based on a particular league's rules and pointvalues. In this manner, user defined source weighting sub-modules 210 ₁. . . 210 _(N) allow a participant to weight each source of information110 ₁ . . . 110 _(N) to arrive at a value for each player which isaggregated using aggregation module 215 and outputted to assistant GMModule 300 via player ranking information 230 for each position.

It is important to note that one of the novel aspects of the presentdisclosure is that each of the weighting values W₁ . . . W_(N)referenced above and the calculation thereof is customizable to provideplayer recommendations based on the particular fantasy sports league. Inparticular, module 210 is customizable for a fantasy sports league witha weighting based on the importance of particular sourcing information110 ₁ . . . 110 _(N) depending on the preference of a participant 15 ₁ .. . 15 _(N). For example, sourcing information 110 _(N) may be providedby a certain fantasy expert related to fantasy players. The fantasyexpert projections are a set of player statistics and the individualleague scoring system is applied to these statistics so each league willhave appropriate fantasy points. As such, this source of information mayreceive a lower weighting for one fantasy league as compared to anotherfantasy league supported by system 10 because of the differences inpoint allocation. Alternatively, sourcing information 114 _(N-1) may beprovided by a certain fantasy expert related to fantasy players based ona fantasy league point allocation that corresponds to the pointallocation associated with the particular fantasy league. This sourcinginformation may receive a higher weighting for one fantasy league ascompared to another fantasy league.

In another embodiment, module 210 may provide the ability to weighcertain information to essentially provide an override, whether positiveor negative, associated with a player. For example, certain sourcinginformation from a particular writer, expert, etc., such as informationthat a player(s) may be injured or otherwise not playing in a givengame, may be programmed to receive a greater weighting percentage thanall other sourcing information since this information may substantiallyimpact the ability of a fantasy player to produce any fantasy points.Thus, this type of information may trigger module 210 to either excludethese players from the player rankings output by aggregation module 215or indicate to a fantasy sports participant that a player should not bedrafted or selected for a fantasy team. In addition, the sourcinginformation may be analyzed and aggregated by module 215 which providesa ranking to indicate that a fantasy sports participant trade one ormore fantasy players as described in more detail below.

FIG. 6 illustrates the assistant GM module 300 which includes fantasyplayer ranking module 305 and player comparison module 310. Theassistant GM module compares the player ranking information from talentscout weighting module 200 with the players in a participant's roster toprovide the participant with fantasy player recommendations. Inparticular, the fantasy players at a particular position are ranked byfantasy player ranking module 305 based on the outputted information 230from talent scout weighting module 200. Fantasy player ranking module305 may include a plurality of ranking sub-modules 305 ₁ . . . 305 _(N)used to rank players based on various parameters. For example,sub-module 305 ₁ may be used to rank all quarterbacks (e.g. for afantasy football league) in the league. Sub-module 305 ₂ may be used torank only the top N number of players at a position different from thequarterback position (e.g. running back position). In this manner, theplayer weighting module 305 may be used to rank different players atdifferent positions based on league and/or participant preferences.

These ranked players are compared to the corresponding player at thesame position on a participant's roster by player comparison module 310and a participant may customize this comparison process. For example, aparticipant may define that if a player on the participant's roster isranked in the top N number of players provided by talent scout weightingmodule 200, then the talent scout recommendation module 300 will notrecommend the participant to modify its roster to include one of the Nnumber of players. Alternatively, a participant may define, at module310, that if a player on the participant's roster does not appear on theranking of players provided by talent scout weighting module 200 at thatposition, then the ranking module 305 will recommend the participant tomodify its roster to include one of the N number of players. Aparticipant may define, at module 310, that if a player provided bytalent scout weighting module 200 is ranked higher than a player on theparticipant's roster at the corresponding position, then the assistantGM module 300 will recommend the participant to modify its roster toinclude one of the N number of players. If the ranking of the player atthe same position on the participant's roster is lower than the playerranking, then the assistant GM module 300 will recommend that the playeron the participant's roster be replaced. This replacement may be bystarting a bench player or trading for another player as outlined inFIG. 8. In this manner, the assistant GM module 300 determines if aplayer is of a caliber and quality to deserve a roster spot on aparticipant's fantasy team.

Operations for the above-described fantasy sports embodiments may befurther described with reference to one or more logic flows. It may beappreciated that the representative logic flows do not necessarily haveto be executed in the order presented, or in any particular order,unless otherwise indicated. Moreover, various activities described withrespect to the logic flows can be executed in serial or parallelfashion. The logic flows may be implemented using one or more hardwareelements and/or software elements of the described embodiments oralternative elements as desired for a given set of design andperformance constraints. For example, the logic flows may be implementedas logic (e.g., computer program instructions) for execution by a logicdevice (e.g., a general-purpose or specific-purpose computer).

FIGS. 7, 8A and 8B illustrate an embodiment of a logic flow 700 and 800.The logic flow 700 may be representative of some or all of theoperations executed by one or more embodiments described herein, such asthe fantasy sports system 10, for example. In the illustrated embodimentshown in FIG. 7, the logic flow 700 may receive sourcing information anddata associated with one or more fantasy sports players at block 705.For example, various sources of player information 110 ₁ . . . 110 _(N)are selected for aggregation based on a particular fantasy sports leaguewithin system 10. Each of the information sources 110 ₁ . . . 110 _(N)may be selected from a larger group of information sources 101 ₁ . . .101 _(N) based on various rules associated with a particular fantasyleague.

The logic flow 700 may receive sourcing information and data associatedwith one or more real-life sports players at block 710. For example, thesources of player information 110 ₁ . . . 110 _(N) may be associatedwith real-life players which correspond to fantasy player information.This selection may be controlled by a particular participant and iscustomizable within the fantasy sports league of system 10. Real-lifeplayer information may be selected from a larger group of real-lifeinformation sources 101 ₁ . . . 101 _(N) based on various rulesassociated with a particular fantasy league. The content of each of thefantasy sports player sources of information 705 and the real-lifesports player information 710 may be structured data, or a subset of ageneral format data or a hybrid or subset thereof as described above.

The logic flow 700 receives the various sources of player information110 ₁ . . . 110 _(N) and weighs the information and data at block 715based on customized fantasy sports league rules and/or user definedparameters. In particular, the various sources of information may beweighed based on the preference of a participant. For example, thesources of information and data may be weighed based on whether or notthe information is supplied by a fantasy sports expert, real-life sportsexpert, fantasy sports writer, etc. Certain information may receive ahigher or lower rating as compared to other sources of information basedon participant preferences. The player information from the sources ofinformation at a particular position receives a value based on thisweighing process. For example, each of the players at the quarterbackposition will receive a value based on the weighing of the sources ofinformation at step 715. The weighing process is customized by aparticipant for the fantasy sports league in that particular informationmay be weighted differently than other sources of information. Inaddition, the sources of information may receive different weightings orundergo different logic rules for one fantasy league as compared toanother fantasy league supported by system 10. This customization optionmay be based on parameters unique to a particular fantasy league suchas, for example, differences in fantasy player point allocations,changes in fantasy competition schedules, differences in league rules,etc. Player recommendations are based on these logic rules performed onthe weighted information and data.

The logic flow 700 takes the weighted player information and data havingparticular values and aggregates these values at step 720. Thisaggregation is used to rank the players by position at step 725.Continuing with the above example, all the quarterbacks in the leaguemay be ranked at step 725 based on the various sources of information110 ₁ . . . 110 _(N), the weighting process performed at step 715 andthe aggregation aggregation process performed at step 720. The rankingof players at each position is compared to the roster of a participantat step 810. After this comparison, a determination is made at step 820if the players from the sourcing information are ranked higher than aplayer on the participant's roster at the corresponding position. If theplayers from the sourcing information are not ranked higher than aplayer on the participant's roster, then the process proceeds to step825 and no player recommendation is provided to the participant. Ifplayers from the sourcing information are ranked higher than a player onthe participant's roster, then the process proceeds to step 830. Adetermination is made at step 830 if the participant has a bench playeron its roster that is either one of the ranked players from the sourcinginformation or if the participant bench player is ranked higher than theparticipant's player at that position on the current roster. If eitherof these conditions is satisfied, then the process proceeds to step 835where the participant's bench player is recommended. If either of theseconditions is not satisfied, then the process proceeds to step 840 wherea determination is made if a bench player (on another participant'sroster is ranked higher at that position than the participant's playerat the same position. If this condition is satisfied then the processproceeds to step 845 and a recommendation is made to the participant totrade for the bench player from the other participant's roster. If thebench player on another participant's team at the same position is notranked higher than the participant's player at the same position thanthe process proceeds to step 850. A determination is made at step 850whether the ranked player from the source information is otherwiseavailable to be claimed. If the player is available to be claimed, theprocess proceeds to step 855 and the player is recommended. If not, theprocess proceeds to step 860 where a determination is made whether ornot the ranked player from the sourcing information in on another team'sactive roster (e.g. non-bench player). If the ranked player from thesource information is on another team's roster than a trade for thatplayer is recommended at step 865, if not then the process proceeds tostep 870 and no recommendation is made.

It should be noted that each of these steps in the process may becustomized to provide player recommendations for lineup changes, drafts,trades, etc., based on a participant's preferences. In addition, thenumber and details of each recommendation at steps 835 and 845, as wellas the absence of a recommendation at step 825 may be dependent on thefantasy league parameters. Player recommendations may also be based onthe time during the fantasy sports season at which the recommendationsare provided. For example, early in the fantasy sports season or duringthe player draft, recommendations on all or a subset of fantasy sportsplayers may be provided due to the fact that the fantasy sportsparticipants 15 ₁ . . . 15 _(N) are creating their rosters andadditional recommendations are needed. In this case, the comparisonprocess at step 810 may not executed since during roster creation thereis no participant roster to compare to. In this manner, the number andnature of the recommendations provided by logic flows 700, 800 andsystem 10 are customizable for a given fantasy sports league.

FIG. 9 illustrates an embodiment of an exemplary computing architecture900 suitable for implementing various embodiments of the fantasy sportssystem and methods as previously described. In particular, the computingarchitecture 900 may be used by a fantasy sports participant 15 ₁ . . .15 _(N) and/or the fantasy sports system server and/or a portionthereof. The computing architecture 900 includes various commoncomputing elements, such as one or more processors, co-processors,memory units, chipsets, controllers, peripherals, interfaces,oscillators, timing devices, video cards, audio cards, multimediainput/output (I/O) components, and so forth. The embodiments, however,are not limited to implementation by the computing architecture 900.

As shown in FIG. 9, the computing architecture 900 comprises aprocessing unit 904, a system memory 906 and a system bus 908. Theprocessing unit 904 can be any of various commercially availableprocessors. Dual microprocessors and other multi-processor architecturesmay also be employed as the processing unit 904. The system bus 908provides an interface for system components including, but not limitedto, the system memory 906 to the processing unit 904. The system bus 908can be any of several types of bus structure that may furtherinterconnect to a memory bus (with or without a memory controller), aperipheral bus, and a local bus using any of a variety of commerciallyavailable bus architectures.

The system memory 906 may include various types of memory units to storeinformation in system 10 and may be, for example, read-only memory(ROM), random-access memory (RAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM), Double-Data-RateDRAM (DDRAM), synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), static RAM (SRAM), programmableROM (PROM), erasable programmable ROM (EPROM), electrically erasableprogrammable ROM (EEPROM), flash memory, polymer memory such asferroelectric polymer memory, ovonic memory, phase change orferroelectric memory, silicon-oxide-nitride-oxide-silicon (SONOS)memory, magnetic or optical cards, or any other type of media suitablefor storing information. In the illustrated embodiment shown in FIG. 9,the system memory 906 can include non-volatile memory 910 and/orvolatile memory 912. A basic input/output system (BIOS) can be stored inthe non-volatile memory 910.

The computer 902 may include various types of computer-readable storagemedia, including an internal hard disk drive (HDD) 914, a magneticfloppy disk drive (FDD) 916 to read from or write to a removablemagnetic disk 918, and an optical disk drive 920 to read from or writeto a removable optical disk 922 (e.g., a CD-ROM or DVD). The HDD 914,FDD 916 and optical disk drive 920 can be connected to the system bus908 by a HDD interface 924, an FDD interface 926 and an optical driveinterface 928, respectively. The HDD interface 924 for external driveimplementations can include at least one or both of Universal Serial Bus(USB) and IEEE 1394 interface technologies.

The drives and associated computer-readable media provide volatileand/or nonvolatile storage of data, data structures, computer-executableinstructions, and so forth. For example, a number of program modules canbe stored in the drives and memory units 910, 912, including anoperating system 930, one or more application programs 932, otherprogram modules 934, and program data 936 applicable to system 10. Theone or more application programs 932, other program modules 934, andprogram data 936 can include, for example, the fantasy sports system 10,the systems used by fantasy sports participants 15 ₁ . . . 15 _(N),and/or the fantasy sports system server(s) 30.

A fantasy sports participant 15 ₁ . . . 15 _(N) can enter commands andinformation into the computer 902 through one or more wire/wirelessinput devices, for example, a keyboard 938 and a pointing device, suchas a mouse 940. Other input devices may include a microphone, aninfra-red (IR) remote control, a joystick, a game pad, a stylus pen,touch screen, or the like. These and other input devices are oftenconnected to the processing unit 904 through an input device interface942 that is coupled to the system bus 908, but can be connected by otherinterfaces such as a parallel port, IEEE 1394 serial port, a game port,a USB port, an IR interface, and so forth.

A monitor 944 or other type of display device is also connected to thesystem bus 908 via an interface, such as a video adaptor 946 and can beused to display player recommendation information R₁ . . . R_(N) to theone or more fantasy sports participants 15 ₁ . . . 15 _(N). In additionto the monitor 944, a computer typically includes other peripheraloutput devices, such as speakers, printers, and so forth.

The computer 902 may operate in a networked environment using logicalconnections via wire and/or wireless communications to one or moreremote computers, such as a remote computer 948. The remote computer 948can be a workstation, a server computer, a router, a personal computer,portable computer, microprocessor-based entertainment appliance, a peerdevice or other common network node, and typically includes many or allof the elements described relative to the computer 902, although, forpurposes of brevity, only a memory/storage device 950 is illustrated.The logical connections depicted include wire/wireless connectivity to alocal area network (LAN) 952 and/or larger networks, for example, a widearea network (WAN) 954. Such LAN and WAN networking environments arecommonplace in offices and companies, and facilitate enterprise-widecomputer networks, such as intranets, all of which may connect to aglobal communications network, for example, the Internet.

When used in a LAN networking environment, the computer 902 is connectedto the LAN 952 through a wire and/or wireless communication networkinterface or adaptor 956. The adaptor 956 can facilitate wire and/orwireless communications to the LAN 952, which may also include awireless access point disposed thereon for communicating with thewireless functionality of the adaptor 956.

When used in a WAN networking environment, the computer 502 can includea modem 958, or is connected to a communications server on the WAN 954,or has other means for establishing communications over the WAN 954,such as by way of the Internet. The modem 958, which can be internal orexternal and a wire and/or wireless device, connects to the system bus908 via the input device interface 942. In a networked environment,program modules depicted relative to the computer 902, or portionsthereof, can be stored in the remote memory/storage device 950. It willbe appreciated that the network connections shown are exemplary andother means of establishing a communications link between the computerscan be used.

The computer 902 is operable to communicate with wire and wirelessdevices or entities using the IEEE 802 family of standards, such aswireless devices operatively disposed in wireless communication (e.g.,IEEE 802.11 over-the-air modulation techniques) with, for example, aprinter, scanner, desktop and/or portable computer, personal digitalassistant (PDA), communications satellite, any piece of equipment orlocation associated with a wirelessly detectable tag (e.g., a kiosk,news stand, restroom), and telephone. This includes at least Wi-Fi (orWireless Fidelity), WiMax, and Bluetooth™ wireless technologies. Thus,the communication can be a predefined structure as with a conventionalnetwork or simply an ad hoc communication between at least two devices.Wi-Fi networks use radio technologies called IEEE 802.11x (a, b, g,etc.) to provide secure, reliable, fast wireless connectivity. A Wi-Finetwork can be used to connect computers to each other, to the Internet,and to wire networks (which use IEEE 802.3-related media and functions).

FIG. 10 illustrates a block diagram of an exemplary communicationsarchitecture 1000 suitable for implementing various embodiments offantasy sports system 10 and associated methods as previously described.The communications architecture 1000 includes various commoncommunications elements, such as a transmitter, receiver, transceiver,radio, network interface, baseband processor, antenna, amplifiers,filters, and so forth. The embodiments, however, are not limited toimplementation by the communications architecture 800.

As shown in FIG. 10, the communications architecture 1000 comprises oneor more clients 1002 and servers 1004. The clients 1002 may implementthe systems used by the fantasy sports participants 15 ₁ . . . 15 _(N).The servers 1004 may implement the fantasy sports system server 30. Theclients 1002 and the servers 1004 are operatively connected to one ormore respective client data stores 1008 and server data stores 1010 thatcan be employed to store information local to the respective clients1002 and servers 1004, such as cookies and/or associated contextualinformation.

The clients 1002 and the servers 1004 may communicate informationbetween each other using a communication framework 1006. Thecommunications framework 1006 may implement any well-knowncommunications techniques, such as techniques suitable for use withpacket-switched networks (e.g., public networks such as the Internet,private networks such as an enterprise intranet, and so forth),circuit-switched networks (e.g., the public switched telephone network),or a combination of packet-switched networks and circuit-switchednetworks (with suitable gateways and translators). The clients 1002 andthe servers 1004 may include various types of standard communicationelements designed to be interoperable with the communications framework1006, such as one or more communications interfaces, network interfaces,network interface cards (NIC), radios, wireless transmitters/receivers(transceivers), wired and/or wireless communication media, physicalconnectors, and so forth. By way of example, and not limitation,communication media includes wired communications media and wirelesscommunications media. Examples of wired communications media may includea wire, cable, metal leads, printed circuit boards (PCB), backplanes,switch fabrics, semiconductor material, twisted-pair wire, co-axialcable, fiber optics, a propagated signal, and so forth. Examples ofwireless communications media may include acoustic, radio-frequency (RF)spectrum, infrared and other wireless media. One possible communicationbetween a client 1002 and a server 1004 can be in the form of a datapacket adapted to be transmitted between two or more computer processes.The data packet may include a cookie and/or associated contextualinformation, for example.

Various embodiments may be implemented using hardware elements, softwareelements, or a combination of both. Examples of hardware elements mayinclude devices, components, processors, microprocessors, circuits,circuit elements (e.g., transistors, resistors, capacitors, inductors,and so forth), integrated circuits, application specific integratedcircuits (ASIC), programmable logic devices (PLD), digital signalprocessors (DSP), field programmable gate array (FPGA), memory units,logic gates, registers, semiconductor device, chips, microchips, chipsets, and so forth. Examples of software elements may include softwarecomponents, programs, applications, computer programs, applicationprograms, system programs, machine programs, operating system software,middleware, firmware, software modules, routines, subroutines,functions, methods, procedures, software interfaces, application programinterfaces (API), instruction sets, computing code, computer code, codesegments, computer code segments, words, values, symbols, or anycombination thereof. Determining whether an embodiment is implementedusing hardware elements and/or software elements may vary in accordancewith any number of factors, such as desired computational rate, powerlevels, heat tolerances, processing cycle budget, input data rates,output data rates, memory resources, data bus speeds and other design orperformance constraints, as desired for a given implementation.

Some embodiments of the fantasy sports system 10 and associated methodsmay comprise an article of manufacture. An article of manufacture maycomprise a storage medium to store logic. Examples of a storage mediummay include one or more types of non-transitory computer-readablestorage media capable of storing electronic data, including volatilememory or non-volatile memory, removable or non-removable memory,erasable or non-erasable memory, writeable or re-writeable memory, andso forth. Examples of the logic may include various software elements,such as software components, programs, applications, computer programs,application programs, system programs, machine programs, operatingsystem software, middleware, firmware, software modules, routines,subroutines, functions, methods, procedures, software interfaces,application program interfaces (API), instruction sets, computing code,computer code, code segments, computer code segments, words, values,symbols, or any combination thereof. In one embodiment, for example, anarticle of manufacture may store executable computer programinstructions that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer toperform methods and/or operations in accordance with the describedembodiments. The executable computer program instructions may includeany suitable type of code, such as source code, compiled code,interpreted code, executable code, static code, dynamic code, and thelike. The executable computer program instructions may be implementedaccording to a predefined computer language, manner or syntax, forinstructing a computer to perform a certain function. The instructionsmay be implemented using any suitable high-level, low-level,object-oriented, visual, compiled and/or interpreted programminglanguage.

Some embodiments may be described using the expression “one embodiment”or “an embodiment” along with their derivatives. These terms mean that aparticular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connectionwith the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment. Theappearances of the phrase “in one embodiment” in various places in thespecification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment.

Some embodiments may be described using the expression “coupled” and“connected” along with their derivatives. These terms are notnecessarily intended as synonyms for each other. For example, someembodiments may be described using the terms “connected” and/or“coupled” to indicate that two or more elements are in direct physicalor electrical contact with each other. The term “coupled,” however, mayalso mean that two or more elements are not in direct contact with eachother, but yet still co-operate or interact with each other.

It is emphasized that the Abstract of the Disclosure is provided tocomply with 37 C.F.R. Section 1.72(b), requiring an abstract that willallow the reader to quickly ascertain the nature of the technicaldisclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not beused to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims. Inaddition, in the foregoing Detailed Description, it can be seen thatvarious features are grouped together in a single embodiment for thepurpose of streamlining the disclosure. This method of disclosure is notto be interpreted as reflecting an intention that the claimedembodiments require more features than are expressly recited in eachclaim. Rather, as the following claims reflect, inventive subject matterlies in less than all features of a single disclosed embodiment. Thusthe following claims are hereby incorporated into the DetailedDescription, with each claim standing on its own as a separateembodiment. In the appended claims, the terms “including” and “in which”are used as the plain-English equivalents of the respective terms“comprising” and “wherein,” respectively. Moreover, the terms “first,”“second,” “third,” and so forth, are used merely as labels, and are notintended to impose numerical requirements on their objects.

Although the subject matter has been described in language specific tostructural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understoodthat the subject matter defined in the appended claims is notnecessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above.Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed asexample forms of implementing the claims.

1. A computer-implement fantasy sports game method comprising: providingdata from a plurality of information sources related to one or morefantasy sports players; weighing a set of data from the plurality ofinformation sources to provide a value associated with said one or morefantasy sports players; aggregating the values associated with said oneor more fantasy sports players; ranking the one or more fantasy sportsplayers based on the associated aggregated values; comparing the rankedplayers to a participants player roster; and determining if one or moreof the ranked players has a higher ranking than a corresponding playeron a participants roster at a particular position.
 2. Thecomputer-implemented fantasy sports game method of claim 1 wherein ifthe ranked player has a higher ranking than the corresponding player ona participant's roster, then the method further comprising recommendingthe ranked player to the participant.
 3. The computer-implementedfantasy sports game method of claim 1 wherein the weighing of the set ofdata from the plurality of information sources is customizable by aparticipant.
 4. The computer-implemented fantasy sports game method ofclaim 1 wherein the information sources are associated with fantasysports players.
 5. The computer-implemented fantasy sports game methodof claim 1 wherein the information sources are associated with real-lifesports players.
 6. The computer-implemented fantasy sports game methodof claim 1 wherein the weighing of the set of data from the plurality ofinformation sources is based on rules associated with a particularfantasy sports league.
 7. The computer-implemented fantasy sports gamemethod of claim 1 wherein the information sources are provided based onrules associated with a particular fantasy sports league.
 8. Thecomputer-implemented fantasy sports game method of claim 1 wherein theinformation sources are provided based on selection by a participant. 9.The computer-implemented fantasy sports game method of claim 1 whereinthe ranking the one or more fantasy sports players is based on playerposition.
 10. The computer-implemented fantasy sports game method ofclaim 1 wherein the recommending of the ranked player to the participantfurther includes determining if the ranked player is part of anotherfantasy team and if so, providing a recommendation to the participant totrade for the ranked player.
 11. The computer-implemented fantasy sportsgame method of claim 1 wherein the recommending of the ranked player tothe participant further includes determining if the ranked player is abench player associated with the participant's player roster, and if so,providing a recommendation to the participant to play the bench player.12. An article of manufacture comprising a storage medium containinginstructions that when executed enable a system to: provide data from aplurality of information sources related to one or more fantasy sportsplayers; weigh the information sources based on user input to output avalue associated with the one or more fantasy sports players; aggregatethe weighted values; and rank the one or more fantasy sports playersbased on the associated aggregated weighted values.
 13. The article ofclaim 12, further comprising instructions that when executed enable thesystem to display N number of fantasy sports players from the one ormore fantasy sports players based on the aggregated weighted values. 14.The article of claim 12, further comprising instructions that whenexecuted enable the system to compare the ranking of the one or morefantasy sports players to corresponding players on a roster of aparticipant at a same position.
 15. The article of claim 14, furthercomprising instructions that when executed enable the system torecommend a particular one of the one or more fantasy sports players toa fantasy sports game participant having a higher ranking than a playeron the roster of the participant at the same position.
 16. An apparatus,comprising: a processor; and a memory communicatively coupled to theprocessor, the memory to store a fantasy sports game system forexecution by the processor, the fantasy sports game system comprising:an information sourcing module operative to receive or supplyinformation from a plurality of sources associated with one or morefantasy sports players; a weighting module operative to weight theinformation from the plurality of sources of information and provide avalue associated therewith; an aggregation module operative to aggregatethe corresponding values of the weighted information from the pluralityof sources; a ranking module operative to determine the ranking of theone or more fantasy sports players based on the corresponding values;and a recommendation module operative to compare the one or more rankedfantasy sports players with one or more players on a participant rosterat the same position and if the ranked fantasy sports players have ahigher ranking than the one or more players on a participant roster,then recommending the ranked player at the same position.
 17. Theapparatus of claim 16 further comprising a display configured to providea recommendation of the one or more fantasy sports players.
 18. Theapparatus of claim 16, wherein the weighting module is operative toweight the aggregated data based on rules associated with a particularfantasy sports league.
 19. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein theweighting module is operative to weight the aggregated data based onparticipant input.
 20. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein theaggregation module is operative to aggregate the data from the pluralityof information sources based on participant input.